Akatsuki's Labyrinth
by danicat91
Summary: Gaara's dual with Deidara ends in his kidnapping. After a day of fruitless searching for her brother, a stranger appears on Temari's balcony and while they talk, somehow Temari finds herself in a strange world where she has to solve a deceptive labyrinth to save Gaara. - Mostly adventure, but contains humor and leads to romance! -
1. Concerning Temari's unfortunate brothers

**Note: this chapter is basically an adapted version of episodes 4-7 of Naruto Shippuuden, in which Gaara fights and ends up being captured by Deidara. I worked Temari into the story, wrote it from her point of view and more or less made it a prelude for my crossover with Jim Henson's Labyrinth. It's a dreadfully serious chapter, but I promise: the next chapters are more humerous. I hope you enjoy.**

"GAARA! GET OUT AND GET THE HELL LOST!"

Positively fuming, Temari grabbed her fan, blew her youngest brother out of her bedroom and slammed the door shut in the process. She heard an annoyed "never mind!" coming from the other side.

She knew her anger was unreasonable. Gaara had knocked and walked into her room, without waiting for an answer, while she was getting ready for bed, but he didn't even see anything embarrassing. His mistake was just_ really_ badly timed.  
She had just come back from a long and tiring mission, which hadn't gone particularly well. Naturally she was cranky as balls and the fact that she already had a bit of a short fuse to begin with didn't help.

"Geez…" Temari sighed as she calmed down slightly and figured she owed her brother an apology. However, when she had opened the door and looked out in the hallway Gaara was nowhere to be seen. She decided that they'd talk in the morning, there was no use finding him now: it was too late and she was too tired. She got into bed and fell asleep quite swiftly.

However, Temari wasn't fated to rest for very long, because she got woken up by noise that came from outside. At first she thought it was storming, but it wasn't like any storm she'd ever heard. Muffled, but obviously excited voices and fevered footsteps sounded through her ceiling. She dressed herself and, through the balcony, got up on the roof, where she found, among others, Kankuro and Baki. The latter was occupied handing out orders and running around to arrange things himself. Kankuro just stood there, staring up at the sky.

"What's going on?" Temari asked her brother.

"Some lunatic is attacking the village by himself," he answered, pointing up, "Gaara is fighting him. It looks like he's got the situation under control, but the guy is pretty strong."

From where Temari stood, it looked like the attacker wasn't able to lay a finger on Gaara, which was usually the case. He moved about on an enormous white bird. She couldn't see him well, because they fought high above the buildings, but every now and then the bluish moonlight would show that Gaara's opponent had a blond ponytail and that he wore a black cloak with red shapes on it. She heard him laugh smugly, as if he was the one in control. This idiot was obviously too full of himself.

"He uses bombs," Kankuro continued to explain, "You know, just before you arrived, Gaara crushed the bloke's arm and I don't think he even winced. Can you believe…"

His voice trailed off when a gigantic white pear-shaped... _thing_ appeared in the sky in between Gaara and his opponent. The colossus started falling and Baki commanded everyone to retreat. Temari and Kankuro knew it was no good. If this was a bomb, there would be absolutely nothing left of the village after it's detonation.

But right before the bomb went off, Gaara had managed to shield the entire village with sand from the desert. The explosion was blinding and deafening, but the damage was minimal. That is, the village was safe, but something happened up there that had taken its toll on Gaara. He succeeded in dumping the enormous amount of sand back in the desert, but after doing so he dropped from the sky and no one could prevent him being captured by the cloaked figure.

The bastard turned right around and headed for the village's gates.

"He's trying to leave?!" Kankuro roared, incredulously, "I won't let the son of a bitch get away."

Temari was aware of nothing around her, beside the guy on the bird and her brother's rage. Baki argued with her brother as he ran off, but Temari had no idea what was being said, she just followed Kankuro. It took a while before she noticed that he was now yelling at her.

"What is it?!" she yelled back.

"You have got to stay in the village! You're in no state to fight."

"Don't talk such bullcrap, Kankuro! Of course I'm coming."

"It's no good to argue!"

"I will _not_ sta-"

"Dammit, Temari, listen to me!" Kankuro cut her off, "I'm not gonna to lose you, too!"

"_Shit_!"

Temari was back in her room. She had found that her brother was right after all: she was dizzy with fatigue and had almost run out of chakra. Fighting would probably have been fatal and would certainly not have helped her find her youngest brother.

Through meditation Temari managed to fall asleep until dawn, but as soon as it was getting lighter out, she got up and joined the umpteenth search party to set out after Gaara and his kidnapper. She was out all day until a messenger came up to her to inform her that Kankuro had been found unconscious in the desert. He had a high fever and seemed to be mortally ill.

At once Temari dashed back to the village, where she found him writhing and moaning and surrounded by medical-nin who looked clueless. They understood that he had been poisoned, but even the legendary Chiyo-baasama could find no antidote.

Temari stayed by Kankuro's side until the sun set. By that time she was she had become a wreck and the medical-nin insisted that she would take some rest. Reluctantly she went up to her bedroom, where she plumped down on the edge of her bed and buried her face in her hands, feeling utterly desperate. She was too terrified for her brother's fate to cry.

Suddenly she heard tapping on her glass balcony door. When she looked, she only saw a crow that was flapping in place, as if it was looking for a landing spot. But then it turned into a man, someone who wore a black cloak with red shapes.

"Bastard!" Temari exclaimed, seized her fan and tramped toward the window, prepared to give the blonde aho a good beating. Perhaps he would even tell her where and why he took her brother.

Except it wasn't who she expected it to be.

Temari slowed down her pace to a near halt, as most of her anger turned into doubt. This man had a whole different feel. He was a dark figure and stood quite still, but somehow his presence wasn't at all less prominent then that of the conceited bomber. Temari knew that it was because, presently, he _wanted_ to be seen.


	2. In which Temari learns of the Labyrinth

Temari carefully advanced toward the doors, while she took in the stranger's appearance through the glass. He had rather pale skin, especially in contrast with the jet black hair that framed his face. It was an elegant face, almost feminine. He wore a forehead protector with a symbol which she recognized as that of Konohagakure, from the Land of Fire and it had a deep scratch through it. She saw now that the red shapes on his cloak were clouds.

Temari had reached the door, lifted her hand and took hold of the doorknob. His stern-looking eyes appeared to be some sort of Kekkei Genkai, which she didn't recognize. They had red irises with strange markings in them. Slowly she turned the knob, opened the door and stepped out.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Would it matter if I told you?" he replied after a short silence.

"You're right, I don't care who you are. Judging by your outfit, you must be pals with that bomber. So you know where my brother is?"

"I do."

"Huh! I suppose I'm going to have to make you tell me, aren't I?" Temari looked defiantly into the crimson eyes and leaned on her massive fan.

He smiled coldly. "I thought you wanted him gone? Didn't you tell him to get lost?"

"What are you talking about, of course I did, but it's just an expression, idiot," she retorted venomously, but fell quiet, "how did you know I said that?"

The dark-haired man didn't answer, but after a moment stretched his arm behind him.

"He's over there."

"What are y-" Temari started, but was dumbfounded when her eyes followed the direction of his finger.

The light of the barely risen sun showed a huge labyrinth spread out at the foot of the hill on which the two were talking.

"What the hell?!" she yelled at the strange shinobi, "How did that get there?"

"It was always there."

"Shut up! I know the view from my room and _that_" – she pointed at the structure below her for emphasis – "was never there."

But then she realized that not only the distant part of her view had altered. They were no longer standing on her balcony. She looked behind her: the entire village had disappeared! There was more that wasn't right in this picture: night had just fallen, how could it be dawn?

"What the hell did you do?!" she yelled as she backed away and got into her fighting stance, with her fan ready to strike. The cloaked man was not impressed.

"You have thirteen hours to solve the labyrinth before your brother beyond saving."

"What..?" Temari muttered and grew pale, "What are you doing to him?"

"Our aim is to extract the Ichibi from him," the crow-man explained.

"He'll die!"

"You have thirteen hours…" he repeated and spontaneously dissolved into a cloud of crows.

Temari moaned desperately. _I've got to stay calm…_ thought to herself and sighed, _How hard can the labyrinth be? I've found myself in worse surroundings._

She walked up to the high labyrinth wall and could find no entrance. It was too high for her to jump on and somehow she wasn't able to climb it, using her chakra either. When she looked around for other options, she saw someone standing by a pond. She marched toward the figure - which, she soon saw, was a guy - until she realized what he was doing. From crotch height a trinkle of "water" trickled into the pond.

"Er… excuse me," Temari muttered from a safe distance.

"Hmm?" the fellow looked around at her and grumbled "Oh, it's you."

Temari instantly knew that she didn't like this guy one bit. He had sharp, but indifferent eyes, looked moody and lazy and his hair was stupid, too. It was combed and tied back tightly, high on the back of his head. Other than that he was actually kinda good-looking, but good looks do nothing when one's attitude is rotten. He was rude as well: he didn't even bother speeding up the process of passing water and when he finished he took no further notice of Temari. He just found a comfortable spot on the dry earth, lay down and started looking up at the sky.

"Right. I need to get into this labyrinth, can you help me?"

She got distracted for a second when a pretty little blonde, long-haired fairy, flew past her and smiled sweetly at her. It wore a purple dress and its hair in a high ponytail, while bangs covered one of its blue eyes. All of a sudden there were dozens of the creatures all around her.

"So sweet!" she whispered, in awe.

Temari suddenly heard a small shriek and a soft thud of something hitting the ground.

"Fifty-seven," the inactive bloke mumbled.

Temari realized that one of the fairies had dropped from the air. When she went over to the little creature to check if it was ok, she saw that it had been caught in a weird kind of net, made out of something black and transparent.

"Hey! What d'you do that for?" Temari was sure Mr. Disrespectful over there had something to do with the trap.

"Poor thing…" she said in a soothing tone as she picked the little bugger up. "You're such a dick, you kno- Auch!" she dropped it, "It bit me!"

The cloud-gazer snorted. "Mendoukusei… What did you expect it to do?"

"I dunno, grant wishes or something," she shrugged.

"Huh! Shows what you know… Fifty-eight," he added when his set-up immobilized another bug.

"Those pests are suckers for pudding," he grinned smugly at Temari.

"You're shameful."

"No I'm not, I'm Shikamaru. And who might you be?"

"I'm Temari."

"I knew it... Fifty-nine." One more victim.

"Do you know where the door to the labyrinth is?"

"Maybe."

"Well…? Where is it?"

"Sixty. Hurray," he cheered emotionlessly. "Where's what?"

"The door!"

"What door?"

Temari let out an exasperated grunt. "It's hopeless asking you anything!"

"Not if you ask the right questions," the smartass noted and added, barely audible: "Troublesome woman…"

"How do I get into the Labyrinth?" Temari sighed, pretending not to hear the insult.

"Ah, now that's more like it. You get in there."

As if lifting his arm to point was too much trouble, he merely turned his head slightly to the left and nodded at the wall, or rather, at what was formerly a wall.

Two heavy wooden doors had appeared, which opened outwardly from the middle. Thick mist rolled through the opening, as if a Kirigakure ambush was waiting for her around the corner of the entrance.


	3. In which Temari enters the maze

Shikamaru looked at Temari, wearing a curious expression. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought that he was worried.

"You're really going in, are you?"

"I'll have to," was Temari's short reply.

On her guard, with a kunai, ready to strike, in her hand Temari stepped into the labyrinth and looked from left to right. She didn't feel the presence of anyone other than good-for-nothing outside.

It was a dismal looking path. It was paved with grey tiles and the castle-like walls, which were made out of dark bricks, were glistening with slime. Here and there a bare twig grew out from between the stone. Yellowish green, strange mosses – on which knobs grew that looked like eyeballs with yellow, pupil-les irises - were the only source of colour to be found.

If Temari hadn't been able to sense chakra, Shikamaru surely would have scared the living daylight out of her when he creeped up behind her, quiet as a shadow, and mumbled, "Cosy, isn't it?"

"Yes, delightful," Temari curtly replied and sighed, "So… left and right basically look the same. Which way would you go?"

Shikamaru yawned and stretched elaborately before he answered, "I wouldn't go either way."

"Could've seen that coming," Temari said, rolling her eyes, "Thanks for nothing, Shi_ne_maru."

"Mendoukusei… It's Shikamaru."

"Duh!" Temari retorted, annoyed, "It was a pun, you know, 'shine' meaning _die_ and all."

"Har har," he said, not amused.

"Now get lost, I'm in a hurry."

"Ha! That's a funny thing to say when I'm the one _leaving_ the maze."

And so they parted. Now that she was alone, Temari noticed how quiet it was in the labyrinth. There was no sign of life whatsoever. All of a sudden the gates slammed shut. She had been so focused on the silence that the bang made her jump. As it echoed through the passage and faded away, Temari was trying to decide on going left or right. There wasn't much to base her decision on. Didn't people in stories always turn their backs on the sunny looking path? In this case neither of them looked particularly bright and breezy, but the right one was definitely messier: it was littered with branches.

Right it was.

Temari started walking, running would do her no good at this point: she had to save energy. It felt like the eyeball like knobs lurked after her, but when she looked around at them, they held quite still. Even so, she was convinced that she was being watched.

After a couple of minutes Temari started getting impatient. _Ttaku! _she thought, _what do they mean labyrinth? There aren't any turns or corners or anything... _So she started running.

That didn't help at all, nothing changed: all she saw were the same bricks, branches, twigs and eyeball-mosses.

Impatience turned into anger. She brought out her fan and tried to break apart the wall with her kamaitachi no jutsu. Which didn't work. "Are you _fucking_ kidding me?!" she bellowed, "What the fuck are those walls made of?!"

She groaned desperately and crouched down on the ground, staring at her knees and clutching her hair.

"Damn it!"

"Ohayou!" a small voice beside her then said.

Temari looked around and saw nothing but a tiny, pale-orange, chubby-cheeked toad with bright orange markings. She looked from left to right once more, but saw no other living creature and this toad wore a little blue vest, so hesitantly she asked the amphibian "did you just say 'good morning'?"

"Nah, I said 'ohayou', but that's close enough," it smiled brightly, causing it's cheeks to puff up even more.

"You happened to know the way to this labyrinth?" Temari tried hopefully.

"Nah, I'm just a toad!"

"Shit..."

"Come inside and meet Gamakichi nii-chan! We have great snacks!" the cheerful toad said.

"No thanks," Temari sighed, "I have to solve this labyrinth, but how am I supposed to do that when there aren't any turns or openings?"

"Well, you're not looking right! It's full of openings!"

Temari gazed at the creature.

"What do you mean? Where are they?" she said, distrustfully.

"There's one right across from you!" the toad said, as though it was in plain sight.

Temari looked and all she saw was a wall. "No there isn't." She got up to examine the bricks.

"'Course there is!" the toad replied, "go on, walk through it."

Temari still didn't believe him, "It's just a wall!"

"Things aren't always what they seem in this place. Go on, go on!" he urged.

So Temari walked up to the wall slowly, still believing it was solid, but then saw a paralleled path appear.

"Eeeeeh...?" she softly exclaimed, astonished. Then she turned to the toad and bowed, beaming, "Thank you! That was really helpful!" and turned left.

"Don't go that way!" the toad hurriedly yelled after her, "Never go that way!"

"Oh, thanks!" Temari bowed again as she came past the opening.

"She'd have gone straight to the castle..." the toad muttered after Temari had disappeared behind the wall.

Meanwhile, in a cave underneath the castle in the centre of the labyrinth, a flickering and buzzing figure appeared. The only thing distinguishable was the outline of spiky hair, cloudlike shapes on its robe and its sharp, curious eyes. They were purple and from its pupil expanded, like water ripples, several rings.

Soon after this apparition, an even stranger figure came out. At first it seemed like an enormous Venus fly-trap grew rapidly from the cave floor, but then it's leaves opened and trough it, two eyes with yellow, pupil-less irises peered out of a half black, half white face.

"Zetsu," the hologram addressed it in a deep, metallic voice, "They are late."

"The Jinchuuriki was stronger than Deidara had anticipated," sniggered the white side of the face.

"Sasori was later kept busy by the Jinchuuriki's brother," black Zetsu added, grumbling, "but they got rid of him and will arrive in half a day."

"Fine... Any other news?"

"Yes indeed!" was white Zetsu's excited answer.

"A girl has entered the labyrinth," the black half explained, "the Jinchuuriki's sister..."

The flashing man was not impressed.

"Have Tobi take care of her," he ordered and vanished.


	4. In which Temari runs into dead ends

When the maze had become more complex Temari decided to start marking her way. With a kunai she scratched arrows in the tiles every time she turned a corner and was quite pleased with this method, until she ran into a dead end and had to turn back. She discovered that her arrow had been turned around somehow.

"What the hell?!" Temari cried out, "This place sucks ass!"

"That's right!" she heard behind her, "it does suck!"

Temari spun around at two guards roaring with laughter. Each stood in front of a dark wooden door.

When the second had caught his breath, he added "And that's only half of it!", a remark that was apparently equally hilarious, although Temari begged to differ.

"What?!" she said, "This was a dead end just now!"

"No," the right guard - a young guy with spiky black hair and a bandage across his nose – noted, "that's the dead end, behind you!"

His companion, a bloke with a blue bandana and brown hair covering one of his eyes, started laughing again and as Temari turned around once more, his neighbor joined in. They were right: the way she'd just come had been closed off. A feeling of despair once again washed over Temari.

"It keeps changing, what am I supposed to do?!" she uttered, hopelessly.

"Well," bandana replied, "the only way out of here is to try one of these doors."

"One of them leads to the castle at the center of the labyrinth," bandage added, "and the other to…"

"pompompom po~m" lefty quasi ominously interjected

"Certain death…!"

In unison they rounded off their forbidding message with a ghostly "Oo~h."

"Ha! You can't scare me like that," Temari said, but admittedly she did feel kind of uneasy about all this, "Which is which?"

"You can only ask one of us," the left keeper answered.

"Un!" the other agreed, "It's in the rules! And I should warn you: one of us always tells the truth and one of us always lies. That's a rule, too," he added, "_He_ always lies."

"I do not, I tell the truth!"

"Oooh, what a lie!"

"Oo! He's the liar!"

They started sniggering.

While the guards had been bickering, Temari thought of something. She went up to the guard with the emo hair.

"Alright, answer yes or no," she instructed him, "Would he" – she pointed at spike – "tell me this door" – she pointed at the door behind the addressee – "leads to the castle?"

The guard had to think about it for a moment, but finally answered: "Yes?"

"Then… the other door leads to the castle and this door leads to certain death," Temari decided.

"How do you know? He could be telling the truth!" he started debating, while right keeper simply listened.

"But then _you_ wouldn't be," Temari explained, "When you tell me he'd say 'yes', I know the actual answer would be 'no'."

"But _I_ could be telling the truth!" the guard argued.

"But then _he_ would be lying, so the answer would still be 'no'!"

"Wait a minute." The guard looked at his colleague, "Is that right?"

"I don't know!" he answered "I never understood it!"

He burst out in laughter and his partner immediately joined in.

"I know it's right," Temari muttered even though they'd stopped paying attention, "I figured it out."

She walked toward the right door and the guard, hiccupping in the aftermath of his fit of laughter, stepped aside and went quiet altogether. His colleague left his post to join him in intently watching Temari go through the door. She felt their eyes prickling in the back of her neck, but kept walking proudly through the hallway. Suddenly she felt that there was nothing underneath her feet _to_ walk on. In a reflex she managed to get on the ledge of the pit, but that didn't help her much as the door slammed shut and the hallway closed off with a bang. The room went completely dark, apart from a little opening in the center of the high ceiling.

For a moment she considered. Forcing open the door was no option, because she would be back where she started and she knew it was a dead end. She tried attacking the walls with her fan again, but the results were the same as before: not a single scratch was left in the stones.

So down was the only option. The hole was narrow enough for her to let herself slowly descend, but after a while the walls of the pit came to an end. She looked down to see if there was a floor, but all she saw was a gaping black hole.

Temari decided that she had no choice but to let go, even though she had no idea how far down she would fall. Before she let herself drop, she took hold of her fan and during her fall opened it fully and mounted it, in the hope of decreasing speed. The drop only took a second and finally her feet touched the ground.

The darkness had increased until it was absolute. The kind one's eyes don't get used to. Temari started groping the walls of the space in search of a door. She bumped into a whole lot of stuff, but none of them were exits of any kind.

Just as she was about to give in to panic, out of nowhere she felt someone's chakra appear. She recognized it, but just to be certain asked: "Who's there?"

"Me."

A light went on and Temari looked in the ever annoyed looking face of Shikamaru. She couldn't believe how happy she was to see it. She didn't let on, though.

"How did you get in here?" she asked sceptically.

"This place is a piece of cake," Shikamaru said, "You know, I knew you were going to get into trouble, so I've come to give you a hand."

"Well, how?" Temari repeated, "There aren't any doors."

"This is an oubliette. It's a place you put people to forget about them," Shikamaru ignored her question, "So I s'pose you want to get out?"

"You... Don't ask stupid questions."

Shimamaru turned around and picked a broad plank up from the floor that actually turned out to be a door. It had two doorknobs, one on the left and one on the right side. He set it upright against the wall and smirked at Temari, before he turned the doorknob on the right side and revealed a brightly lit passage.

"Amazing..!" Temari sighed and figured that she probably never liked someone as much as she liked this guy now. "Where does the other doorknob lead to?"

"That's a broomcloset."

Temari laughed heartily. It might not have been a joke but anything was great at this point.

"Say, will you help me solve this labyrinth?" she asked him cheerfully.

"No way, that's far too troublesome."

"What?!" Temari's feelings about Shikamaru turned quite around: she was convinced she never disliked someone more.

"I will bring you above ground and from then you're on your own," Shikamaru said.

"Fine!" Temari curtly replied.

"Good," he said impassively and started walking through the passage. Temari quietly followed.


	5. In which Temari gets warned a lot

After walking a few minutes in silence, all of a sudden a deep voice thundered through the cave.

"Don't go on!" it warned.

It was followed almost immediately by another.

"Go back, while you still can!"

And they kept coming.

"This is not the way!"

"Take heed and go no further..."

"Beware! Beware!"

"Soon it will be too late..."

The warnings came from enormous faces that had been carved in the rocky walls of the passage. They wore gloomy and some even distressed expressions. The mosses and cobwebs that covered the stone made them look even more grim.

"Don't pay attention to them," Shikamaru told Temari, "They're probably just false alarms. It must mean we're on the right track."

"Oh, no, you're not!" one of the faces bellowed.

"Shut up!" Temari grumbled.

"Sorry... I'm just doing my job," it moped.

"Never mind, Temari," Shikamaru muttered, "It's too troublesome telling all of them individually that they don't have to bother."

"Beware! For the path you take will lead to certain destruction..."

"Oh, that one was particularly fancy," Temari noted.

"Thank you very much." the face replied, still sounding depressed. Temari figured that they were most likely unable to sound anything other than miserable.

The two walked for a while longer until they reached a T-junction. There stood a man who started giggling giddily as they approached him. Just the sight of him made Temari burn with rage, because, although she'd never seen _him_ before, he was yet again someone who wore the same cloak as her brother's kidnapper. Apart from short, spiky, black hair, there wasn't much of him visible, because he wore an orange mask with just one hole to look through.

Temari picked up her speed, but Shikamaru held her back. "Be careful not to look into his eye," he whispered in her ear, "It looks like he has a Sharingan."

"A what?"

"It's a very powerful Kekkei Genkai that was common in a clan that came from my village: the Uchiha-clan. One of its abilities is to create persistent illusions."

"Thanks for the heads up," Temari mumbled.

She marched toward the masked guy, who was still tittering like an idiot.

"Doomo~!" he screeched.

"What do you want?" Temari asked him mistrustful.

"Eeeh, imagine running into a Suna in a place like this! Oh, and a Konoha, how nice!" he added jovially as he saw Shikamaru come up to him.

"Do you think you're funny, idiot? I asked you something!" Temari said, losing her patience.

"Oh, there's nothing in particular," he replied with a little uneasy chuckle, although Temari had a feeling it wasn't genuine, "But I suppose that, now that we've met so conveniently, I could give you a welcome gift!"

He turned his head to his left, toward the dark path as if he expected something to come out into the light. Temari followed his glance as she got ready for whatever it was he was looking for. She heard Shikamaru shift behind her, probably doing the same.

After a few moments the clown, scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "Ah- haha... hahaha!" he chuckled nervously, "Well, I guess it won't show up!"

"Mendoukusei..." Temari heard Shikamaru mutter.

"Don't mess with us, bastard!" she growled.

"Oh! Here it comes after all..!"

There was a change in the man's voice that sent a shiver down Temari's spine. It suddenly sounded as dark as the route that his face was still directed at. Temari stared at him with increasing amazement when she saw that a whirl of... _something_ came from his eye.

It became solid just beyond the reach of light. Abruptly it came to life and started making squeaking and puffing and rattling noise. From out of the shadows waltzed a machine that was covered in spinning knives. This didn't particularly frighten Temari, it didn't look like it was very agile, so all she had to do was step back from where she came and let it pass.

Except – _of course_...Temari thought exasperated to herself - the passage had been closed off. What did surprise her, was that the masked man was trapped _with_ them.

"Shouldn't you start moving?" he asked Temari, who stared at him speechlessly. The mocking smile he wore on his concealed face could be heard in his voice.

Temari glanced at Shikamaru, who shrugged and started running and Temari followed, because the machine started accelerating. When she looked behind her, she saw the masked man simply step through the wall.

"Did you see that?!" she asked Shikamaru astonished and he nodded quietly.

"Who the hell is that?! I've never seen a technique that enabled someone to walk through a _solid wall_."

"I know, but for now let's just focus on escaping from that thing," he nudged his head in the direction of the machine.

"Right!" Temari agreed quickly, "Got a plan?"

"There are false walls," Shikamaru said, "They aren't easy to spot, but there _are_ clues."

"Like?"

"Well, they're cleaner."

Slowly, the machine gained on them and thus they started looking feverishly for signs. Temari held her fan ready to strike. After a few minutes Shikamaru saw something.

"There!" he pointed ahead of him, to the right and, understanding Temari's intentions, reduced his speed so that he came to run behind her. Temari swung: this time her Kamaitachi no Jutsu sliced right through the surface and created a ragged opening. They slipped through it hurriedly and ended up in a narrow niche.

"That was close..." Temari sighed, as she watched the machine ramble past them.

"Alright, a ladder!" Shikamaru said behind her.

She turned around and saw an unstable looking stepladder, that disappeared into the darkness above them.

"It doesn't seem too safe, but I guess it's all we've got," Temari assumed, "Let's go."

She started climbing and Shikamaru followed, not too closely, in case the steps proved to be as fragile as they looked. Sure enough, one of them snapped underneath her foot.

"Uwa~a!" Temari exclaimed, "This thing makes me nervous as hell!"

"Well, hurry up and get going so that we're out of here as soon as possible," Shikamaru urged.

"Yeah, yeah!" Temari grumbled.

Finally she felt a ceiling of some sorts, that turned out to be the lid of a jar big enough to fit them both. Blinking into the bright sunlight, she crawled out of it, followed by Shikamaru.

"Well, this is where we part," he stated.

"Yes, You promised to bring me above ground and that's what you did," Temari replied coldly, "Thanks for that."

"No need to thank me," he said and turned around without another word.

Temari watched him as he slouched off with his hands in his pockets and his face turned up to the sky and she actually felt sorry to see him go.


	6. In which Temari receives advice

When Shikamaru had disappeared from sight, Temari turned around and looked at the surroundings. She found herself on a little round square, which actually looked quite peaceful. Instead of dark brick walls, the maze was now formed by high, fresh hedges and green archways. Besides the jar that she and Shikamaru had climbed out of, the square was decorated with funny looking sculptures, little sandstone steps and a single stone seat, carved so that it looked like it was made out of books. There was a sundial placed in the middle of the square as well: a charming reminder of her race against the clock.

It was not much use to Temari, though, because the castle was nowhere to be seen over the hedges (she tried pruning them a little, but, guess what, the plants were bloody indestructible), so she had no idea how far she had come and how far she still had to go. Of course, distance didn't mean anything either, she just knew she had to keep moving forward. The question now was, which way forward could be.

Temari knew from about which direction she had come and, based on that knowledge, was on the verge of making up her mind about through which archway she would step to proceed her journey, when she felt someone's chakra approach. She didn't recognize it, so it could be friend or foe, but she wanted to wait for its owner to come out, despite the risk. It might be someone who could give her a push in the right direction, voluntarily or not.

It turned out to be an old man with a pointed goatee and a full head of messy grey hair. He wore a red kimono and a white haori. He just walked to the seat and took no notice of Temari until he sat down.

"Oh, a young girl!" he then said, excitedly.

Suddenly Temari felt another, rather impressive chakra coming closer and someone in a black and orange jumpsuit dashed across the square, jumped and landed on the backrest of the old man's seat. He wore a broad, red, pointed hat with on the front a white patch with the kanji for fire on it.

"So _you_ had my hat!" the old man told him reproachfully and grabbed it from his head. Now that Temari could see him better, she saw that he had wild, blonde hair, bright blue eyes and whisker-like stripes on his cheeks.

"You're not allowed to wear it _yet_, you know!" the man continued.

"Ohh, let me get used to it, jiichan!" the boy complained. "Urusai, I'm busy," was the old man's reply and he cleared his throat as he turned once more to Temari.

"Eeeh! A girl!" the boy now noticed.

"Well then, can I help you, girl?" the man asked her.

"I hope so," Temari replied, "I have to get to the castle in the centre of the labyrinth, do you know the way?"

"Ah!" the man grunted.

"Eh?" his nuisance mimicked him instantly.

"Ah!" the elder repeated distractedly.

"Eh?" the boy sniggered again.

"Ah, yes... You want to get the castle, huh?"

"I'll show you the way!" the boy said cheerfully and in a flash he stood by Temari's side.

"Imbicile!" the man scolded, "You know the way no better than she does! Besides, you're needed here.

"Let me give you some advice, young woman," he addressed Temari, "the way forward is sometimes the way back."

"Keh! Will you listen to this rubbish..." the boy murmured.

"Will you please be quiet!" the man roared with an emphasis on every word.

"Alright!" the boy replied curtly.

"Okay?"

"Okay!"

"Alright."

"Alright!"

"Finished?"

"... Yes."

Temari was getting impatient, but, hoping for some good guidance, waited for them to finally stop bickering.

The old man returned his attention to her.

"Quite often, young lady," he spoke slowly, "It _seems_ like we're not getting anywhere, when in fact-"

"We are," the boy finished for him.

"We _are_..." the man growled, glancing at him irritably.

"Well, I'm certainly not getting anywhere at the moment," Temari said, feeling that this had been a waste of time.

"Join the club..." the boy grumbled.

"Well, thank you. I'll be on my way now." Temari bowed at the old man and walked through the archway she had been about to take, before the couple had showed up.

She had only crisscrossed through the new scenery shortly, when she heard a savage roar not too far from where she stood. The noise persisted and Temari decided to follow it. When she peeped around a hedge, she saw a red and grey clad, small giant, with one foot caught in a rope, dangling upside down from a tree. His long brown, bristly hair was draped over a pile of food and he was flapping his (even compared to his body) huge hands at little white creatures that were pecking at him, in an attempt to fight them off. He failed to do so, however, because they came from everywhere.

Temari saw that the ones he _did_ manage to hit, instantly fell to the ground. One of them landed at her feet and on closer examination she discovered that it was an origami bird. She stepped around the hedge, took out her fan and gave one moderately powerful swing that blew every paper bird away.

Temari walked up to the large guy to help him get out of the tree, but he had his eyes tight shut and kept waving his arms around, so that she had to duck to avoid them.

"Oi, stop!" she told him, "Is that a way to treat someone who's trying to help?"

The trapped bloke opened his eyes and his arms froze.

"Are they gone?" he asked and looked around him before he sighed with relief and let his arms drop.

"Thank you!" he said and grinned widely at Temari, "I'm Chouji!"

"My name is Temari. Pleasure to meet you," she replied, "Let me get you down," she said and cut the rope with a kunai.

Chouji landed softly and with skill, which Temari had not expected, considering his size, but then he plumped down heavily next to the pile of food and started to gorge himself.

"It was torture hanging up there," he explained between mouthfuls, "With all of that delicious stuff out of reach!"

Temari had been walking for a few hours now and felt she was somewhat hungry herself. She found anpan on the pile and enjoyed it while she scanned their location. It seemed like she had reached the edge of the garden-like part, because she saw a high sandstone wall. A bit to the left she saw, once again, two dark wooden doors, which were unguarded this time.

But when she looked better, she saw that there were no handles, just knockers with brass faces. She inspected them for clues how to open the doors, when the left suddenly started talking.


	7. In which Temari can speak with animals

"Hey now," the knocker said with a deep, pleasant voice, "It's rude to stare, you know."

The knocker had a canine look with pointed ears, from which a ring with a knob protruded, and two wavy decorative lines on each cheek.

"Woa, sorry," Temari said, a bit startled as she had not expected the thing to start speaking, "I was just wondering how to get through."

"Hmmm?" the knocker wiggled its ears.

"Pleath ekthuth him, he'th theaf ath a poth," the right knocker told Temari. She saw that this one held its ring in its mouth, which made it difficult to speak. The knocker's face resembled that of a cat with crescent shaped lines around the sides of its eyes, which were in turn enveloped by lines on its cheeks and temples.

"Why, you shouldn't speak with your mouth full," the dog chuckled.

"I'm noth!" the cat retorted.

"Hmm?"

"Hang on, I can't understand you," Temari said, took hold of the ring and was about to take it out, when she heard Chouji walk up to hear, still chewing loudly.

"Aren't you full yet?" she asked him.

"Nah! This stuff is real tasty, I can't get enough!" he had his, by now notably smaller hands full of food.

Temari grinned and returned to business, pulling the ring out of the cat's mouth.

"Gaaah," it exclaimed, thoroughly stretching its jaw, "It feels so good to get that thing out!"

"Now, what were you saying?" Temari asked.

"I said: please excuse him, he's deaf as a post," the cat sighed.

"My, you guys certainly like to mumble," it's neighbor butted in, "won't you speak up and let me be a part of the conversation, huh?"

"Ah, SURE SENPAI!" the cat practically shouted and then addressed Temari in the same volume, "SO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO GET THOUGH?!"

"Er, yes please," Temari replied uncertain if she should scream as well.

"Hmm?" the dog repeated calmly.

"YES PLEASE!" she cried and shot a warning glace at Chouji, who was barely able to hold his laughter.

"Ahh, alright then," the deaf doorknocker said in an entertained tone, "Knock, and the door will open."

"OKAY! THANKS!"

Temari looked at the ring she was still holding and figured that if she had to put it back anyway, she might as well use it. But first she wanted to know what could be awaiting her behind the doors.

"Where do these lead to, anyway?" she asked the cat, pushing the door for no particular reason.  
"Sorry, I have no idea," it replied with a friendly smile and its regular intensity of voice, paying no attention to its colleague's protesting moan, "We're just the knockers."

"Hm, too bad," Temari said and held the ring up to its lips.

"I don't want that thing back in my mouth!" the knocker uttered, looking slightly panicked and closed his mouth tightly.

"Come on," Temari said, "I wanna knock."

"Na-ah!" it muttered from the corners of its mouth.

"He doesn't want it back, huh?" the dog grinned, "Can't say I blame him…"

A cunning look appeared in its eyes and he continued in a deeper voice: "Well, I sure have respect for the guy, managing to hold that detestable thing between his jaws for such a long time. I highly doubt that just anyone could've done it. Come girl, knock on my door. I will sacrifice my delicate ears so that my dear kouhai can rest for a while longer."

Temari looked at the cat-face, which had been staring at his colleague in awe since somewhere halfway the speech, and shrugged.

"Alright," she said and had already started moving to her left, when the right woke from its daze, cried: "Wait, stop! I'll do it!" and opened its mouth wide. Tameri stared at it in amazement, then, while she stuffed the ring back into its mouth, glanced at the other and mouthed "smoooth!", with a well-done-I'm-impressed look on her face. It gave a proud smirk in reply.

Temari sniggered and turned to Chouji.

"So, what are you going to do?" she asked him.

"I don't know where you're going," he shrugged, "but I guess I'll tag along."

"Fine by me," Temari smiled and finally lifted the ring and banged it against the firm wood - and once more for good measure - of the door in front of them. It slowly creaked open and revealed a densely vegetated forest.

Curiously looking around, Temari, directly followed by Chouji, stepped through the opening and on a damp forest trail. Temari had almost forgotten about the eerie looking places of the Labyrinth after the fresh garden she'd just come from, but was reminded instantly when she walked into this part. The wide, misshapen trees let through barely any light, the still air was hazy and bleak, and thick rotting braches on the forest floor were covered in spider webs and goo. But it was also quiet, there wasn't so much as a breeze to stir the leafy trees, so - while she stayed on her guard, of course - Temari didn't really worry about surprise attacks.

This time Temari had taken slamming doors into consideration, but Chouji obviously wasn't as experienced as her, because when the one behind them, like any door she'd come across in the maze, suddenly and loudly closed, she heard him yelp and sigh a moment later. She laughed at him quietly. It felt kind of good to have a traveling companion.

After Temari shortly explained her situation, they moved through the trees in silence, as the trail slowly narrowed and ultimately completely disappeared. They tried to keep going in a line as straight as possible, while the spooky woods only got spookier. Every now and then they'd come across dead trees that looked especially dreadful, with shapes that reminded them of freakish creatures.

"This place gives me the creeps," Chouji shivered.

"Yeah, me too," Temari nodded, "But there isn't really anything to be scared of, is there? We've been in here for a while and nothing happened," Temari said.

He only made a disbelieving sound, so she looked around at her companion to smile reassuringly at him, only to see that he had vanished into thin air.

"Shit!" Temari looked around her frantically to spot possible attackers, but there was nothing to be seen and she didn't feel anyone either. So she decided to look for clues of what could have happened to Chouji on the forest floor. His footprints disappeared where the earth had been slightly disrupted and Temari concluded that there must have been some sort of trapdoor, that had opened, pulled Chouji down and closed crazy fast.

For a moment she hesitated: she didn't want to leave Chouji behind, but she could discover no way to go after him and the clock was ticking. She had to find _Gaara_.

"Ah, shit… I'm so sorry Chouji..." she moaned regretfully and started running. This time she was hyper sensitive to her surroundings. She had underestimated the forest. Sure enough: she'd been running only for a few minutes when she shortly heard rhythmic tapping. Instantly she was set to attack whatever was coming.


	8. In which Temari meets a puppeteer

Temari recognized the sound as the chattering of teeth, kind of, but not completely, like the sound that the puppets Kankuro used made. But instead of the combat puppets she was expecting, a kind of frail looking guy stepped out of the shrubs. He was dressed in the familiar black robes with red clouds, had a delicate face with big, dreamy eyes and short hair that was coloured a dull shade of red. He didn't look much older than Temari did.

"How's your brother doing," he asked her with a dark smile.

If his outfit hadn't already made her boil inside, this taunting remark would definitely have done the trick. But Temari decided to try and keep her cool for now and took a deep breath.

"Very funny," she sighed, "Why don't you tell _me_?"

"You misunderstand," he replied, "I mean the one who uses my puppets, of course. Has he died yet?"

"_Your_ puppets? You mean… you are Sasori of the Red Sand?" Temari couldn't believe it, wasn't he much too young?

"He's told you about me, huh?" he smiled, "What a good boy. Now answer my question. I don't like to wait."

"That would be none of your business, you bastard," Temari growled. God, it was impossible to stay collected... "Where's Gaara?"

"Oh, I don't know," Sasori shrugged, "My original and Deidara are still on their way here."

"You're a clone?" Temari asked incredulously.

"That's right," he said, "I heard that you had entered the labyrinth and since I've had so much fun with your brother and Deidara with the Jinchuuriki, I thought I'd try you as well."

Temari glared at him and after a short silence, calmly replied: "Try me if you like…"

She was done talking. All she wanted to do now was to hit this guy hard in the head with something made out of metal. She steadily took out her iron fan and got into her fighting stance.

"Ah, excellent," Sasori remarked, lifted his arms and suddenly stretched them out in front of him, pulling half a dozen of strange creatures out of the bushes that he had attached to his fingers by chakra threads.

"Alas, my main body needs the scrolls for his puppets, but I figured I'd come across something useful out here," he lifted his arms presenting the animals like a show-host would present an artist coming on stage, "How do you like these? They're called fireys, I believe. Aren't they freaky?"

Temari took a better look. The first thing that stood out on these animals was their fur. Only on their shoulders, hips, the back of their heads and the tips of their long tails grew fluffy hair that was mainly red, alternated with orange and white in some places. Like fire. They had little sharp teeth in their long beaks, an insane look in their luminescent eyes and their skinny limbs were covered in pale leathery skin.

In short, Temari thought that they were quite disgusting, but they didn't look dangerous at all and she felt a little like she was being made fun of.

"Now you're just mocking me," she snarled.

"Don't underestimate a good puppeteer, girl. We can turn pretty much anything into a weapon." Sasori smirked, "Now... shall we begin?"

He pushed his arms out in front of him with a powerful jerk and the fiery animals charged at Temari spreading their beaks open wide and shrieking loudly. As heir long limbs dragged on the forest floor, their fingers caught fire and they lifted their arms, aiming for Temari's neck.

Quickly Temari opened her fan fully, yelling "Eat this!" as she gave it a powerful swing.

The fireys were thrown back, but the fire in their hands flared up and now Temari was bombarded with fireballs from all directions. Another swing sent them flying, but Sasori instantly had a new attack prepared. Six fluffy torso's fell to the ground as heads and limbs detached themselves and newly lit fingers and toes and remarkably sharp fangs surrounded Temari. They were already too close to blow away, so she hurriedly closed her weapon and with lightning speed, managed to beat nearly all of them down. However, two heads succeeded in taking hold of Temari's legs and she groaned when their teeth broke through the skin. She had to hit them repeatedly before they let go.

All of a sudden she noticed that there hadn't been an attack lined up this time. All was quiet, but when she looked up Sasori simply stood where he previously had. He stood frozen still and had a disbelieving look on his face, as if he couldn't figure out why he was unable to move.

"Gotcha," a lazy voice then sounded from high up in a distant tree behind Temari.

"Shikamaru?" she walked toward the source of the voice, squinting up to see through the leaves. Sure enough, there he was, squatting on a broad tree branch.

"Hi," he said casually, "Could you hit him or something, so I can let go? It will just disappear won't it?"

"Yes... It's a clone," Temari said, puzzled, "How are you doing that?"

"Just hurry up, troublesome woman," Shikamaru sighed, "I might explain later."

"Right..." Temari said grumpily. She ran toward the puppet master, gripped her fan tightly and hit the bastard right in his pretty face. Instantly he fell apart into a pile of sand.

"Ha!" she yelled at the heap.

Behind her she heard Shikamaru land on the ground with a soft thud and she turned around at him..

"Why couldn't he move?" Temari asked him a he walked up to her.

"It was a shadow binding technique," he said in a bored tone, "Now, let's go."

"You- ... You're coming _with_ me?" she asked him, astonished.

"It's too troublesome to come after you every time you need rescuing," he sighed.

"What the – Now wait a minute! I did not need your help back there!" Temari said affronted.

"Fine."

"I didn't!" Temari repeated decisively and Shikamaru didn't bother to reply.

Thus they continued, as before, in silence, Shikamaru leading the way. After a while they walked up to a high cliff, with a sandstone wall built on top at the edge, that marked the rim of the woods. It was a little tilted and there were plenty of rocks sticking out to hold on to, so they could climb it the cliff with ease. The wall was a bit harder to climb, but Shikamaru managed to pull them up, using his shadow technique.

Temari now had a good view of the distance she had accomplished. The outer walls of the labyrinth looked pretty far away, considering she felt like she had zigzagged all the way here. An impatient sigh from Shikamaru reminded her to keep walking. She looked over her shoulder at the maze. It was actually quite beautiful. She didn't get to enjoy the view for long, though, because, once again, the ground vanished underneath her feet and something grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her down fast.

Temari was determined not to get separated from Shikamaru again: he was too beneficial. So on her way down she grabbed him by the waist and dragged him with her.


	9. In which Temari meets a knight

"Shit!" Shikamaru yelled, "What are you _doing_?!"

The trapdoor led to a steep, smooth slide. They already went quite fast as they fell, but, despite all the curves, their speed increased drastically as they went.

"I thought you wanted to rescue me!" Temari yelled back, laughing up at Shikamaru. In some strange way, this situation was funny, now that he was here. She promptly realized that she was still holding on to him tightly. Instantly she let go and shifted her eyes to her feet, hoping that he wouldn't see her blush.

Temari now focussed on spotting the end of the tunnel. It didn't take long for it to come, so she held her fan ready to open and jump on. That way, their landing would be gentle, no matter how long the drop. Everything went according to plan, until Shikamaru decided to grab on to the wall, instead of jump on the fan with Temari.

"Come!" she urged him, "Hop on!"

"Yeah, that won't work," he said and lashed a shadow out at her to fetch her and pull her onto the ledge he was standing on.

"Do you smell that?" he asked her and nodded down, "You don't want to land into _that_."

Temari smelled it, alright... Below them, she saw a swamp with bubbling, yellow-ish brown water. Each bursting bubble produced a wet farting noise and sour looking vapour. Half decayed tree-remains floated softly on the ripples. Foul as it looked and sounded, it smelled a thousand times worse. It was nothing like any loathsome odour they'd ever inhaled.

"Oooh, my _god_!" Temari uttered, "What _is_ that?!"

"I don't know," Shikamaru grimaced, "But I doubt it's something you'll be able to wash off in this lifetime."

Carefully they shuffled down the ledge until eventually they saw a path slither through the swamp, that led up to the wall.

"Safe?" Temari checked with Shikamaru.

"Let's try it," he answered and jumped down.

Temari followed immediately. They had to push themselves away from the wall mid-jump, as they suddenly saw something that appeared to be alive crouched at the base. After they had landed, they took a curious look at it.

"_Chouji_?" Temari then asked.

The huddled up figure looked up sleepily.

"It's really you!" Temari cried, "I'm so happy to see you're okay!"

The large guy grinned at her.

"I'm glad to see you, too! Although I don't think I'm okay," he held his nose shut, "Dis sbell is gilling be!" he moaned.

"I agree, stranger," Shikamaru said, "So let's get out of here."

"Oh, ah, right: Shikamaru, this is Chouji – Chouji, Shikamaru," Temari quickly introduced them, "Now, let's get moving."

After walking for a few minutes, breathing as little as possible, they came across a rickety looking wooden bridge, or rather a series of planks tied together that had been laid out across the water. It rested on, what looked like the remains of a collapsed stone crossing. The fumes of the swamp must have degraded the cement that had held the stones together.

As they walked up to it, someone unexpectedly jumped down from a tree, yelling "Stop! Stop I say!" and blocked the way.

It was a tall and thin, green clad boy with extremely thick eyebrows, a round face and glossy black, bowl-cut style hair. He assumed a solid looking fighting stance.

"What now?!" Temari cried, "Move over, I have to get across."

"Without my permission, no one may cross!" the hold-up stated theatrically.

"Ugh… we have to get out of this stench…!" Shikamaru moaned.

"It smells so baahaad," Chouji added.

"Stench? Of what stench speaketh thou?" the showboat wondered.

The three stared at him blankly and he stared back with a questioning look, as if he could really smell nothing. It was Shikamaru who eventually broke the silence.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked, incredulously.

The boy inhaled deeply. "Haaa," he sighed blissfully, "The air is sweet and fragrant… And none may pass without my permission!" he snapped.

Temari groaned, "Get out of the way!" She started walking in the direction of the bridge-guardian.

"I warn thee, I'm sworn to do my duty!" he cried.

In a flash Temari was ready to strike with her fan and the blockade had resumed his defensive stance, but Shikamaru intervened.

"You vowed not to let anyone pass without your permission?" he asked the green knight with a bored voice.

"That is correct!" he proudly answered as he raised his chin and chest.

"So can we get your permission to pass?" Shikamaru asked simply.

The guard slumped and stared amazed at Shikamaru, whereupon he glanced at his companions.

"Yes," he stated after a moment of pondering.

"Great, let's go," Shikamaru said curtly and walked toward the bridge.

He left the others staring after him in disbelief.

"Er… what just happened?" Chouji wondered.

"Thanks, Shikamaru," Temari said, still slightly dazed, "That saved a whole lot of time."

Shikamaru said nothing and kept walking, but she managed to catch a glimpse of a smile.

When he reached the other side the bridge-keeper dashed after him.

"Before this day, never have I met my match in battle," he exclaimed when he had reached Shikamaru, who stood waiting at the end of the bridge, "Yet this noble knight defeated me, using merely his wit!"

Shikamaru shrugged.

"Sir Shikamaru, if that is thy name," the boy continued in a solemn tone, "now I, sir Rock Lee, yield to thee. Come, let us be brothers henceforth and fight for the right as one!"

"I suppose..." Shikamaru indifferently replied.

"Amazing, Shikamaru! You got yourself a brother!" Chouji shouted across the water.

"Now let's go find my brother," Temari remarked bitterly and stepped on the bridge. It was long and thin and it shook dangerously. When she was halfway the bridge sir Lee must have thought that Temari was in need of moral support, because he called "Have no fear, sweet lady! This bridge has lasted for a thousand years!" He patted proudly on the remains of the stone bridge. Obviously the affected cement could not handle the touch, because the construction abruptly started falling apart.

Temari was now close enough to jump to the other side. She gave a swing with her fan for extra speed and landed safely on the other side of the water.

"Guys?" she heard Chouji shout after them, with a trace of panic in his voice, "Guys! Don't tell me I'm stuck here?! What should I do?!"

"It's alright, Chouji," Shikamaru called back, "If you break apart your side of the bridge, you can drop the stones in the water. It should be shallow. You can make a path until at least halfway across and jump from there."

While Chouji did as he was instructed, Temari glanced at Shikamaru, hesitated for a bit and said "You're kind of clever, aren't you?"

"I suppose," he repeated and pretended to be very interested in Chouji's progress. Temari followed his example and so they stood silently side by side, while sir Lee enthusiastically shouted encouragements to Chouji.

As soon as the small giant caught up to them they resumed their journey. As sir Lee had no more bridge to guard, he decided to join them on Temari's quest.

"By the way, oh noble knight, where is thy steed?" Temari joked.

"Don't be absurd, my charming damsel! I do not require a steed, for I am my own!" sir Rock Lee spoke at once, but then thought for a second, "Or, my lady, I shall be yours if you wish it!"

"What?! No!" Temari hurriedly replied, "I can walk on my own, thank you!"


	10. In which Temari attends a festival

The stench rapidly decreased as the newly formed party removed themselves from the water, although it still lingered in the trees of the forest that the bog blended into. Besides the smell, these woods were nearly identical to the ones Shikamaru and Temari had just managed to leave. This notion left Temari a little bit afraid that all those curves and bends in the slide underneath the trapdoor had led them back and that they could run into a pile of desert sand any minute now. But Shikamaru kept walking steadily onward and somehow that gave Temari confidence that they were going in the right direction. Which was strange, because it was obvious that he was just as frequent a visitor of the labyrinth as she was. Something just told her that she could trust him.

Sir Lee sure was a lively addition to the team. He kept challenging his fellow travellers to friendly sparring matches and when no one showed any intention of accepting, he started challenging himself. First he followed them around on this hands and when that proved to be too easy, he climbed a tree and – still walking on his hands – jumped from branch to branch above them. Temari was surprised to see that he was able to keep up with them anyway, because they were walking at a pretty brisk pace.

After a while she noticed that the sun was already setting and she felt a pang of panic.

"Shikamaru!" she said urgently, "How many hours have gone by since I've entered the labyrinth?"

She had informed him about the time limit she'd received, so he replied: "Don't worry, you've still got a few more hours and we're almost there."

"But the sun-"

Shikamaru cut her off with a loud sigh and said: "Days last 13 hours out here. You arrived one hour after midnight."

"That's trippy..." Temari mumbled, but a weight lifted. Or rather: it was like it sank to her legs, because she felt them rapidly get heavy. She remembered that she'd been awake for a long time by now. Usually she could manage to stay awake for a day or two – or longer, if it was absolutely necessary – but right now her body wouldn't listen. She supposed it was because now she was being emotionally exhausted as well.

"Boys," she said sleepily, "I really need to take a rest. I don't think I can keep going like this."

"I thought you'd never ask," Shikamaru replied, "Walking this fast all the time is really troublesome."

"I wouldn't say no to a quick snack break!" Chouji sniggered and produced a handful of buns from somewhere underneath his clothes.

"Then I shall guard you with my life!" sir Lee exclaimed, as he jumped down and landed – on his feet – in a 'good guy pose'.

They found a 'nice' spot for their intermission. As soon as Temari sat down she could barely keep her eyes open. Right before she drifted away she heard with surprise that her companions were now yawning loudly as well. She might already have been dreaming, though, because she could have sworn that there were soft, white feathers gently drifting down from the sky.

Temari's mind was foggy. For a minute she didn't know where she was. She tried to focus on her surroundings. It was night time and she found herself on a large, tidily mowed clearing in a park. A yagura stage, cheerfully decorated with chochin lanterns, had been set up and people, wearing yukata's were dancing around it in counter clockwise direction. A man on top of the stage held rhythm for the bon odori with a taiko drum.

Temari felt confused: she recognized it as an Odon festival, but it felt strange to be there. Like she had been preoccupied by something else entirely before she'd arrived. Looking down, however, she saw that she wore her white with pale gold yukata as well and people around her urged her to join the dance. Besides, she had no idea what it was that she had been doing before. It couldn't have been that important.

People kept pushing and pulling at Temari and she ceaselessly nodded absent-mindedly in response. Eventually she reached the outer circle of dancing men and women and stepped in. She had a little trouble keeping up with the dance, because the daze wouldn't lift, so she felt like she was moving in water, and she didn't really remember how the dance went. Looking around, strangely enough, she didn't recognize anybody, but she figured that might be because she could hardly see their faces. Once she'd joined the dance, no one took notice to her anymore. All the strangers were solemnly focused on their own movements.

Temari followed their example and found a sort of peace, trying to get in synch with the choreography of everyone around her. She copied arm gestures and steps and the feeling that she'd forgotten something simmered down: her mind was now filled with getting the dance right.

After a while, when she glanced over the crowd, a man, dancing a few rows to the middle, caught her eye. He was pale-faced and black-haired and was dressed in a black and red yukata. As he danced along gracefully, he stared at her with a stern look in his dark eyes, as if he disapproved of her being there. She vaguely remembered those eyes, although it felt like they'd had a different colour when she'd last seen them.

Temari looked ahead of her again and tried to concentrate on the bon odori once more. She was glad to feel that she had gained a little more control over her limbs – although they still felt kind of heavy – and that the steps of the dance came back to her.

For some reason she couldn't resist quickly looking at the dark man again, but he seemed to have vanished. Almost frantically Temari looked around to find him and discovered him ahead of her, right at the moment when the dance required them to make a quarter turn to the right, which made him turn in her direction. Temari missed the turn, because, once again, he shot her a reproving look. Shocked by the abruptness of it, she quickly avoided it. Temari could have kicked herself: this didn't make sense at all! It wasn't like her to be _shy_.

Suddenly she saw him - that is, his yukata - appear to her left, from the corner of her eye. She felt his eyes follow her movements. Ultimately she couldn't help glancing back and their eyes locked. It was as though he was trying to tell her something, perhaps he knew about that bit of missing memory. After a while he started actually talking.

"Do you remember what this festival is for?" he asked Temari.

"Of course, it's to honour our ancestors," she answered timidly, "It's supposed to be a sort of family reunion."

"Weren't you hoping to be reunited with _living_ family members?" the raven said. It was hardly a question: more a rebuke.

"Who are you talking about?" Temari asked uncertainly. She felt that he was right, all this time she'd had the restless feeling inside like she was trying to find something. But who on earth could she be looking for? The man didn't reply, but kept his eyes on hers while they continued dancing.

Then Temari promptly stopped and stepped out of the circle when people started bumping into her. She still didn't remember anything, but her mind had cleared up. She looked more carefully at the setting. It felt so fake somehow. It was too... flawless. The grass was a little too green, the weather a little too balmy, the movements of the dancers a little too synchronized and their expressions a little too peaceful. It was like their faces were covered by masks.

She had to find a way out.


	11. In which Temari drops by a junkyard

Automatically Temari reached behind her shoulder for her fan, but it wasn't there. Searching for an alternative, she spotted a lady in one of the inner rings using a white and red round fan in her dance. It wouldn't work nearly as well as her own iron folding fan, but there weren't many other options.

It was like the people started dancing closer together, because Temari could now barely move through the crowd. She pushed people aside and the guile of the place became more evident, as the people didn't respond to being shoved over at all. They only moved closer together.

Temari reached the woman with the fan and quickly snatched it from her. It was near impossible to get away, because not only did the bunch huddle together more and more, some of them now also tried to hold her back. Eventually she managed to break free from the mass and broke into a run.

At first Temari had blamed the difficulty with which she moved to her own confused state of mind, but now she felt it was actually the air. It was incredibly dense and even though she'd been in it for a while now, she couldn't get used to it. Even so she kept struggling onward and soon she ran into a sort of barrier. She tested its structure by pushing it. The barrier gave a little and when she put more and more force into it, it appeared to be really resilient and tough.

It took a lot of effort for Temari to let her chakra flow through the fan, whatever it was made out of, it was a horrible conductor. She took a deep breath and gave the small fan a powerful swing. The little force she produced did almost nothing to the surface of the barrier. It simply bounced off.

Temari then noticed a kind of hollow and clear noise behind her: like the sound of a bunch of small bubbles under water, shooting up toward the surface. When she looked around and up, it looked exactly what it had sounded like.

"Bubbles?" Temari mumbled perplexed, _I'm under water?!_

She was also surprised to see that the crowd hadn't moved an inch since she broke free from it. The people just stood there and watched her. Why had they bothered trying to detain her so desperately if they now seemed so confident that she wouldn't be able to get out?

_Well, whatever, _Temari thought to herself, trying to keep her head cool, _as long as they don't bother me, I don't mind._

But her head wasn't cool. It was chaotic. She didn't understand the situation. If she was under water, how on earth was she able to breathe? She clutched her hair hopelessly, but in the process felt her hands go from one medium to another. There was an air bladder around her head!

She immediately took a deep breath and held it, as she "charged" the fan with chakra, stuck in the bubble, left of her face and swung it. As she expected, the bubble clung to the fan and as Temari released the air, it formed into a sharp blade-like shape. It only slightly sliced through the barrier, but it was enough: abruptly water burst through, the surface ripped further and Temari got dragged along.

She vaguely heard the people scream as they got pulled into the current as well, and then everything went black in front of her eyes.

When she came to again, she felt something hard painfully poking into her back. Actually, multiple things were poking her everywhere. She opened her eyes and saw that she was surrounded by trash. Toys, baskets, furniture: just old, broken and disposed of stuff, covered in dust and spider webs.

Once more, Temari felt disoriented.

"What was I doing?" she wondered out loud. As she tried to get up, she spotted something white lying on her chest. It was a down feather. She picked it off her clothes and discovered a few more. She wiped them off and took one in between her thumb and index finger. She looked at it with a puzzled expression as she wondered why she was covered in feathers, before she discarded it with a shrug and stepped off the pile of garbage. She still felt a little dizzy, because for a second she lost balance and leaned against a smaller heap, which suddenly started moving an moodily growled "Ow! Get off my back!" It turned around and on the other side appeared a little old woman who looked at Temari with an annoyed frown. She had the pile of junk tied to her back, like she was collecting it.

"Why don't you look where you're going, young woman! Hm?" she scolded Temari.

"I _was_ looking," Temari mumbled. It was more an answer to her own question, than that of the hag.

"Huh? Huh?" she pried, "Where were you going, hm?"

"I don't remember.."

"You can't _look_ where you're going if you don't _know _where you're going!" the old lady explained.

"I was searching for something," Temari continued hazily.

"Well, look here!" the woman said proudly, and produced an interesting looking specimen of a plant in a flowerpot, "Oo~h!"

"An evening-primrose?" Temari said, and with dim gratefulness added: "Thank you."

"That's what you were looking for, wasn't it, my dear?" the lady asked.

This was a rare desert plant and she _was_ in fact an admirer of flora. That must have been what she was looking for.

"Yes. I forgot," Temari answered dreamily, but looked at the plant with uncertainty.

"Now, why don't you come in here," the woman pointed at and hobbled toward a filthy rag covering an opening in a pile of rubbish," and see if there's anything else you'd like. Hm?"

Temari followed. The garbage collector waited by the entrance and started cackling. Temari pushed the cloth aside, to see what it was hiding. She gasped and was rather taken aback when she discovered that her own bedroom was waiting for her behind it. Slowly she entered it and walked toward the windowsill. She put the plant down and looked out the window. Her regular view. She didn't really know why she was expecting anything else.

She plumped down on her bed and closed her eyes for a few moments. When she opened them, it felt as if she woke up from a strange dream. She was convinced it had been nothing more than that when she looked around her room and saw nothing out of the ordinary. She got up again and walked toward her bedroom door, on her way to get some breakfast or something.

Before she could reach for the doorknob, however, the door burst open and the old woman waddled in, still carrying her load. Temari's heart nearly stopped with shock.

"Better to stay in here, dear. Yes," the hag shrieked merrily, "There's nothing you want out there. No! Oh, no."

Temari stared after her feeling utter disbelief followed by pure despair. This wasn't even a dream: it was a real life nightmare. That is, she had no idea what was real anymore.


End file.
